Seasons
by AGENT Kuma-chan
Summary: Kakashi had almost made a betting pool for how long their marriage would last—the only thing everyone could agree on was that it would be Naruto's fault. -NaruSakuSasu, team 7


**Title:** seasons

**Prompt:** season (ahaha, see how great I am with titles?)

**Character/Pairing:** Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, Sai, NaruSakuSasu

**A/N:** I finally got to write another piece for these three. 😊 Written for the Naruto Mix-Up zine, for the bonus piece.

**Summary: **_Kakashi had almost made a betting pool for how long their marriage would last—the only thing everyone could agree on was that it would be Naruto's fault._

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Spring

"You know, this is pointless," Sasuke pointed out dryly, crouched next to the flowerbed. His hands were somehow meticulously clean despite the gardening they'd done for the past two hours.

Sakura tossed a weed at him with a glare. It was patently unfair that somehow he still was the prettiest amongst them, even when she'd made sure to give him the dirtiest work. On top of all that, he had the gall to complain? "It's not."

"Sakuraaaa-chaaaan." Naruto slowly dragged out her name, the way he did when he was about to say something that would get him in trouble. "I don't want to agree with the bastard but he's right."

A betrayal she didn't expect. Her glare shifted to him and she tossed another weed. "How."

"Ouch! How come I get the thorny weeds?" Naruto whined, rubbing the hand that was hit. At least he looked as messy as she did, with streaks of dirt on his face and hands. Even his knees had dust and actually, she really hoped she looked nowhere near as bad as he did.

"How," she repeated, her question more of a statement. And really, it was an _how_. They'd already bought the plants. They'd already planted most of them. This was the absolute worst time to complain or reconsider anything.

"Between mission and hospital duty, when are you going to water them?" Sasuke asked, pressing the dirt firmly around the flower he'd just planted. His eyes bored into hers. "They're going to die."

"I'm not that busy," Sakura replied petulantly, the words a lie even before they left her mouth.

His eyebrow rose in response.

"You can help," she countered, pointing her trowel at the pair. In her torn overalls and broken sunhat, she looked more like a ragamuffin than a powerful ninja, but it was the thought that counted. "It's not like you have that much to do."

"Eh?" Naruto grimaced, clumsily digging a hole. She would have liked to say his prosthetic made him clumsy, that his was just lacking some finer control, but Sasuke never had these problems.

And to be honest, she couldn't say confidently that Naruto wouldn't have these issues otherwise. Turning to Sasuke, she amended, "_You_ can help."

"Hey!" Naruto might have missed the insult, but he didn't miss the intent. "I can help."

"Yeah." Sasuke fought and failed the wipe the smirk off his face. "He can help."

Sakura threw another weed at him—maybe it wouldn't help, but it made her feel better. Especially since he didn't dodge in time and it landed square on his hair.

Summer

"It's hot," Sasuke muttered, the same way he did on the hot summer nights, when Sakura and Naruto crawled into bed beside him. He had never been really honest about what he wanted, particularly since Naruto always woke up to find Sasuke's arms curled around them both.

Naruto disregarded his words now as he did then, sidling next to him on the porch. After much begging and wheedling and pouting, he had convinced both Sasuke and Sakura to buy a house with him a few years ago. One away from all the ghosts. It really wasn't healthy how much time Sasuke spent at the old Uchiha compound but that was an argument for a different time.

Sasuke gave a bleary glare as Naruto pressed against him. "It's hot," he repeated. When Naruto didn't move, he lethargically shoved him away. "Move, idiot."

They were stripped down to their boxers. Sakura refused to let them run around naked, no matter how much cooler that would be. Even when Naruto waggled his brows suggestively that maybe she would like the view, she didn't so much as blush.

Or well, she did blush lightly, because she was Sakura, but Tsunade had trained her too well and her immediate reaction was her fist. It really had been a mistake to leave her here for three years with that old hag.

Naruto grumbled as he flopped down onto the cool hardwood floor, pressing as much of his skin to it as possible. It was too hot to even argue. That didn't stop him anyways. "I'm not an idiot, stupid."

It also didn't stop Sasuke either and maybe Sakura was onto something when she sighed and called them a pair of idiots. "Don't call me stupid, moron." He was too dignified to flop down himself, his prosthetic hand fanning himself.

Maybe they could get one installed with a fan. It was a great idea. Naruto had to remember to ask about it later. Rolling over onto his back, he stared out the porch at the blue sky. This summer was the hottest on record. "It's hot," Naruto complained. Even Sakura's plants, which had somehow survived till August, seemed to agree, wilting in the oppressive heat.

They needed water.

Sakura had told him to water them.

Shit, she was going to kill him. Even that fear seemed like a mirage in this heat. If he died, he wouldn't feel this sweaty. Water. _He_ needed the water. The plants leaves were shrivelling up but it was too much effort to get up and water them all. Maybe he could use the sprinkler.

Naruto sat up. The sprinkler! Of course. Maybe he really was a moron. Suddenly filled with energy, Naruto leapt off the porch and into the backyard.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke drawled, looking half asleep.

"Sprinkler!" Naruto exclaimed, reaching the shed. Yanking the doors open, he scanned the dim room for the sprinkler. It was high on a shelf and he grabbed it. Running back out, he waved it high in the air. "Sprinkler!"

"I can see that." Sasuke was too tired even for sarcasm.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto grabbed the hose. And everyone called Sasuke a genius. Some genius he was. Within moments, he had the sprinkler running and cold water pelted him. Ahh, he was alive. Closing his eyes, he let the water rain down on him. Feeling refreshed, he glanced at the porch slyly. Sasuke was still sitting there, his eyes half closed.

His pride was going to ruin him one day. Well, to be honest, it had already ruined him long ago, but it was definitely going to ruin him again. A mischievous grin spread across Naruto's face as he slowly approached his husband.

"What are you—" Sasuke flinched as water sprayed down on him. His hair was sopping wet and he brushed it away from his face with a glare. "Naruto."

"Well, Sakura told me to water her plants." Naruto danced back, out of his reach. "And you've always been a bit of a pansy."

"You've been spending too much time with Sai." Sasuke sprung off the porch, chasing Naruto through the sprinkler.

When Sakura came back from her shift hours later, it was to a wet porch and two soaked boys lying on the grass. She stared at the flooded lawn and shrieked, "I TOLD YOU TO WATER THEM, NOT DROWN THEM."

Fall

"How's ugly?" Sai asked, his attention solely on his easel. In front of him, the fall colours spread and in a rare move from him, he was drawing something decent for once. Something colourful too, even. Maybe he had spent too much time with team seven. In team seven.

It was making him soft.

Kakashi looked up from his latest porn book, an amused twinkle in his eye. "Don't let her hear you call her that."

"She knows I call her that." Sai dipped his brush in water, examining his colour palette. The red wasn't quite the right colour, the right vibrancy. Maybe if he mixed in some yellows or oranges. A touch of white too.

"True." Kakashi nodded, his single eye crinkled as he smiled. Despite the cover on his mouth, his voice didn't sound muffled at all. Sai had heard the rumours of how ugly or handsome he was underneath it all—maybe he could get him to model one of these days. Scarred or not, it would make for an interesting painting.

He'd have to get Naruto to help—the only way to convince Kakashi was to annoy him into it and Naruto had mastered that skill.

Kakashi flipped the page in his book. "I'm impressed you call that to her face."

"I'm impressed you can read that with a straight face," Sai replied, mixing his paints. And really, it was truly impressive—he'd seen how graphic some of the volumes could get. Yet there was not even the slightest tint of blush on his face. Perhaps that's why he wore the mask, it made it a lot easier to hide reactions.

"It's a tame volume this time." Not that the way Kakashi read gave that impression—each page was ogled at for a long minute before he flipped to the next one.

"She doesn't punch me as much anymore," Sai answered his previous question, moving on from the topic. With a deft hand, he painted the tree leaves, a splotchy mess of colour. When it dried, he'd add in some highlights and outlines, bring order to the chaos.

"I think living with Naruto has made her all punched-out," Kakashi suggested, closing his book. He looked up and to the left, at the Hokage's summit, at his face still getting carved into the mountain next to Tsunade's. "Will there even be room left there for Naruto?"

_When_. It was never an _if_ with Naruto, they all knew he was going to be Hokage soon. Sai briefly glanced to the side himself. "They can make a small one. To match his dick."

Kakashi guffawed, the idea too much. Wiping his eye, he nodded. "That's a brilliant idea."

"Then we could make a big one of Sasuke." Sai picked up a smaller, finer brush, dipping it into black.

"Now you're just trying to kill him." Kakashi shook his head. He ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't think they'd last this long. Maybe after a month Naruto and Sasuke would be at each other's throats. Or maybe Naruto would do something stupid and Sakura would end him." Kakashi paused before adding wryly, "Actually, just Naruto accidentally doing something."

Sai's brush stilled. He remembered Naruto, punching the ground after losing Sasuke that first time. Sakura clenching her fist, wiping her tears, and then comforting him. They spent three years chasing a shadow with no clues, and then a few years after that. If war, if death threats, if none of that could break them, then maybe nothing could. "I don't think they'll ever separate."

Kakashi crossed his arms, staring at the memorial plaque below the Hokage mountain. "No, I suppose not. They aren't like us."

Behind them, they heard bickering, two voices rising quickly. Sai didn't even need to turn around to know it was Sakura and Naruto squabbling, he'd heard this argument many times before. Just as quickly, the voices quietened down and a glance back showed the pair holding hands, laughing.

Ugly. Tiny. Maybe it was time he revised his nicknames for them.

Winter

"Here." Sasuke held out a cup of hot chocolate, steam faintly rising from the top.

Sakura looked up from the couch, surprised. With a grateful smile, she accepted it, the tips of her fingers gingerly holding the ceramic. "Thanks."

"It's nothing." He settled in next to her. At three am, the room was dimly lit. Flickers from the tv lit up the walls, a brainless comedy with a volume so low they could only see the action, the reactions, but not hear the cause.

Sakura blew over her cup. She'd claimed once her tongue was a sensitive as a cat's, unable to drink piping hot drinks until they were room temperature. Even now, addicted to coffee as she was, she still had to cool down her cup. Taking a tiny sip, she murmured, "You don't have to stay up every time."

"It's fine." He relaxed as she leaned against him, her warmth spilling through his clothes and onto his skin.

"Thank you." She glanced to her other side, to where Naruto was fast asleep. Stroking his hair, she gave him an affectionate kiss on the forehead. "Why does he always insist on this when he's always the first to fall asleep?"

"He's an idiot," Sasuke replied, rolling his eyes. As though that was even a question.

Sakura giggled, leaning over to kiss his cheek. Her breath tickled his skin as she pulled back. "You two really never let up."

"Was it bad?" Sasuke asked finally. Sometimes, Sakura took too much after him, bottling up her grief and loss after a particularly bad night in the hospital. It wasn't healthy, but he was the last person to say that. Even he could hear the hypocrisy of his words.

"Not today." She rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes glued to the screen. "No one died today."

Died. Her words were specific, and he knew something else had happened. A coma, perhaps. Or a child. Children were almost worse than death sometimes, he'd seen her clutching her fingers sometimes in the same way a kid must have before she operated on them. Still, she seemed fine for now and he didn't press. If there was something, Naruto could worm it out of her in the morning. "That's good."

"Yeah, it is." Sakura set down her mug, relaxing even further onto him. Her words were sluggish, sleep finally getting to her. "Maybe we can…"

"Can what?" Sasuke set down his own mug. Maybe he should get Naruto to wait for her in bed, it was bad enough he had to carry her upstairs without having to carry him as well.

"Children."

Sakura's voice was so quiet, Sasuke wasn't sure he heard right. Abruptly, he looked down at her, his voice cracking. "Children?"

"In the morning." Sakura's voice grew fainter and fainter, sleep claiming her. "We'll talk then." Within moments, she was fast asleep.

With a sigh, he gathered her in his arms. Children. He glanced at Naruto, at Sakura. A family. It was something he both wanted and feared, a continuation, a curse. A compound full of ghosts, dispelled only by Naruto's laughter, Sakura's smiles.

Maybe it was okay to let it all go now. This was something new, something unconnected to all of that. When he settled into bed, after setting Naruto and Sakura in, he wasn't surprised to find them both clutching him in their sleep. Even unconscious, they refused to let go of him and that was what had saved him, all those years ago. This idiotic obsession, this unhealthy stubbornness.

He wrapped his arms around them both as he closed his eyes. Children. Family. Future. This time, Sasuke wouldn't let go of them, let go of those promises.


End file.
